Pulau Lang Tengah

Hello All!

So I know that I haven't posted at all this week (and you've probably noticed by now that I was inexcusably late on the last two posts) and here's why:

View from our room

I WAS ON A REAL-LIVE FREAKIN' TROPICAL RESORT ISLAND!!!

Way better than being on a boat

Yes, my friends. While you clocked in and out at work I was snorkeling (first time ever. woo!), chilling with some piscine pals.

Good to go (minus the shorts)

While you ate Cheerios and thought about all the work you had to do, I breakfasted here:

About two seconds later we busted out Coronas (not)

Wearn, on the beach

Me, with a big rock

Don't hate

In all seriousness though, it was a very long journey to get to this place, Pulau Lang Tengah: A seven-hour bus ride, a one night stay in a hotel, a one-hour bus ride and a 45 minute boat ride.

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Here's the island, by itself:

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Ramadan observance has just begun here in Malaysia, so the bus stopped only once, and only for 30 minutes and all of the food stalls were closed on the return trip, so Wearn and I were starved by the time we returned (I fully recognize that my Muslim brothers and sisters were probably much hungrier than we were, so I shouldn't complain).

All in all, the trip was quite nice. However, I don't think I can recommend this particular resort. There were four resorts on the island, but ours seemed particularly plagued by all manner of garbage on the beach: Plastic bags, rusty soda cans, underwear (wth?), etc. Far more disturbing than this, even, was the veritable bone-yard of dead coral that littered the shores of the island. Not only are they extremely painful to walk barefoot on, but they were an extremely depressing reminder of how polluted and poorly cared for the waters in the area are. We actually only elected this resort after learning that our first choice had closed many of its beaches due to damage to their coral reefs. The view beneath the water's surface was even more sobering, with there being a stark contrast between the vibrant color and dynamism of the few still-healthy areas and the surface-of-the-moon-like deadness of the damaged areas. Also, the food was not nom-worthy.

Still worth it!